Baseball Splits Doubleheader At Longwood

The
Canisius baseball team won the opener 8-6 in eight innings before dropping the
second game 4-3 at Longwood University on Saturday afternoon. The Golden
Griffins extended their winning streak to five games before seeing it end in the walk-off loss. Canisius is now 8-5 on the
season.

Game One - Canisius 8, Longwood
6 (8 Innings)

Each
team got on the scoreboard in the first inning, with junior Ryan Coppinger reaching on an error to
lead off the game. After Coppinger stole second, he moved to third on a
groundout and scored on a two-out, RBI single from senior Chris Gruarin. The Lancers tied the game in the bottom of the
inning and then took a 3-1 lead with two runs in the bottom of the third.

Canisius
tied the game in the fifth with juniors Jesse
Kelso and Jimmy Luppens leading
off with back-to-back singles. Gruarin scored Kelso with an RBI double and
later scored on an RBI groundout from sophomore Jesse Puscheck. The Griffs took the lead in the sixth as senior Manny Hernandez led off with a single
and pinch runner Jose Torralba moved
to second on fielder's interference and to third on a sacrifice bunt. After an
intentional walk to Kelso, Luppens came through with the two-out, RBI double
down the left-field line to give Canisius the 4-3 lead. Gruarin gave the Griffs
an insurance run with his second two-out, RBI single of the day to score Kelso
and put Canisius up by two runs. The Griffs pushed across another run in the
seventh as sophomore Mike Booth
reached after being hit by a pitch with one out. A single from Torralba moved
Booth to second and an RBI single from junior Ronnie Bernick put Canisius up by three runs. The Griffs would need
all of those runs as Longwood scored three unearned runs in the seventh, taking
advantage of a one-out error from Puscheck, to force extra innings.

The
Griffs bounced right back and scored two runs in the top of the eighth,
starting with a leadoff single from Gruarin. After junior Shane Zimmer moved Gruarin to second with a grounder, Puscheck had
the RBI single to right to score Gruarin. Pinch runner Christian Segar then stole second, stole third and scored on a wild
pitch to put the Griffs up by two.

Sophomore
Rohn Pierce started for the Griffs
and allowed three runs six hits, walked one and struck out six in five innings.
Junior Jon Fitzsimmons allowed the
three unearned runs in the seventh but picked up the victory by retiring the
side in order in the eighth. Fitzsimmons (2-0) struck out two in his three
innings of work.

Game Two - Longwood 4, Canisius
3

Canisius
got on the board in the top of the first again with sophomore Mike Krische leading off with a double.
A one-out, RBI single from Kelso scored Krische. The junior then stole second
base and scored on an RBI double from Gruarin. The Lancers got one back in the
bottom of the first before the Griffs regained the two-run lead in the top of
the third. Senior Brooklyn Foster
started the two-out rally by being hit by a pitch, stole second and then scored
on an RBI single from Puscheck to put Canisius up 3-1.

The
Lancers scored the final three runs of the game to complete the
come-from-behind, walk-off win. Longwood scored one in the fifth and then
scored two in the seventh for the win. Kyri Washington hit a leadoff homer in
the seventh to tie the game and a two-out double from Colton Konvicka gave
Longwood the doubleheader split.

Sophomore
Devon Stewart took the loss for the
Griffs, allowing four runs on six hits, in 6.2 innings. Aaron Myers went the
distance for Longwood, not allowing a hit in the final four innings.

Canisius
and Longwood are scheduled to complete the four-game series on Sunday, with
first pitch set for 1 p.m.